Police target errant drivers

The 23-year-old Drouin East man will face court for driving an unregistered bike and driving at dangerous speeds after he was caught by Bendigo police in Murphy Street at 2.45am.

The man was detected by the TAC under operation Are You Impaired, which ran from 11pm on Saturday to 7am on Sunday. The operation also detected two drink-drivers, one drug-driver and an L-plater driving under the influence of alcohol without L-plates and an accompanying driver.

One 53-year-old North Bendigo woman was fined nearly $600 and had her licence suspended for a year after blowing 0.123 at a breath testing site in Bridge Street just after midnight.

A 24-year-old Long Gully man found driving in Condon Street, Strathdale, without L-plates and an accompanying driver, registered a blood alcohol concentration of 0.37 and must pay $1190 in fines.

Another 27-year-old Bendigo woman tested positive for methamphetamine and police are awaiting more test results.

The highway patrol’s Sergeant Geoff Annand said the operation would be targeting Bendigo again shortly.

“We tested 309 drivers for alcohol, 11 drivers for drugs and gave out five other penalty notices for various offences. It’s an ongoing operation and we will be conducting it on random days every couple of weeks over the next six months.”

Operation Crossroads begins

POLICE will be out in force on the region’s major highways and roads over the next 12 days as part of Operation Crossroads.

The operation began on Sunday and runs until January 3, the next of Victoria Police’s summer enforcement operations after Operation Break Up ended on Saturday night.

On Saturday alone, Operation Break Up caught three more drink-drivers and one driver who tested positive to methamphetamine. Operation Crossroads will target fatigue, driver distraction and drug and alcohol impairment.

Bendigo police’s Sergeant Jason Bourke said local police would flood the region’s roads over the Christmas period. He said police units would be conducting random breath tests across Bendigo when they were not busy. “The aim is to have a high visible police presence around the region.”

Sergeant Bourke said the message was getting through to drivers that if they broke the law, they would be caught.

“It’s going well,” he said. “I think it is slowly getting through to people. We still have some who think they won’t get caught.”

Nine people died on Victoria’s roads during last year’s official 12-day Christmas road toll period.